Verizon Wireless Dumps the Hub

Less than a year after Verizon Wireless declared the Hub as the landline of the future, the nation's No. 1 carrier quietly drops the VOIP phone.

Well, back to the drawing board. Verizon Wireless said Sept. 30 it was discontinuing sales for its Verizon Hub, a VOIP home phone that also served as a Web tablet. In January, Verizon Wireless said it was reinventing the standard home phone with the Hub.

The Hub retailed for $199 and required a $34.99 monthly fee on top of home broadband
service fees.

Verizon Wireless, which said in January it was reinventing the standard home phone with the Verizon Hub, a
joint venture of Verizon Communications and
Vodafone, declined any further details of the decision to drop the Hub,
but a spokesperson told Reuters, "We look at our products and we rotate
them in and out. This isn't
anything other than business as usual. Technology is changing and there
may be different
opportunities available."

Verizon, like other carriers, is experiencing a long-term decline in
traditional landline connections as consumers move to wireless devices.